Like the locomotive one, please feel free to pick the best makes of rolling stock, and only the ones you feel make the best stock. All votes are anonymous.
I don't see BLI there, and I really like their H2a coal hoppers. Great packaging, probably overkill, and they trail very nicely. They are also very visually appealing in my opinion. They're a bit stiff, but properly weighted. I also recently purchased three Silver Series Bachmann 50 ton hoppers, and although they are a tad shiny, and much 'blacker' than their BLI counterparts, they roll slickern' goose poop. Walthers Platinum series are also excellent. I haven't liked anything made by Model Power. I have Bachmann Spectrum and Walthers heavyweight passenger cars, both quite nice, but the Walthers are better, especially in the couplers. Rapido are the best IMO.
Yeah, I realize I left a few out, (like BLI) but the limit is 25. I felt that I couldn't leave out brass and Europe makers however since I have a few cars and sets made by companies that aren't established in the US but are every bit as good imho. But that is the nice thing about a opinion thread, you can post to it too. Funny you mention Rapido. My Rapido car had this funny little note in it, "LONG SHANK COUPLERS Dear Rapido Customer, Due to the extremely long lead time (almost one year) required by Bachmann for their long shank couplers, we could not include them with this car..........(call us at...) Sorry for the inconvenience." First time I've ever seen a note like that.
Not specified...Athearn metal and wood freight car kits. Even their re-incarnation under the Menzies name. SilverStreak.....go together nicely...I always liked their trucks, too. Nice wrappers for the tanks. Ulrich....some of their stuff is really nice...every layout needs an Ulrich Track Cleaning Car. Other than that, whatever falls from the sky, Mantua, Walthers, BB Athearn....but anything Bachmann goes to the nearest person who needs it or circular file. (I notice I am not alone....as of this entry, zero votes...) Dave
I'm building an E&B Valley kit right now. Good looking car with good printing but doesn't go together very well IMHO. I added the brake system piping.
You forgot ExactRail, Rail Yard Models, Front Range/McKeen, Funaro & Carmelengo, Westerfield, Ribbed Side Models, and Sunshine. You could have left the junk off your list of IHC, Mantua, MTH, Model Power and only included Branchline once. Flash, I disagree those kits go together well, just don't use E&B's instructions. The revised instructions from Eastern Car Works kits make the kits go together well. I have built about 25 of the ACF Hopper Kits and 15 of the airslides along with one of the GATC 3500CF Dryflows (A kitbash in a box).
That must have been the problem. I'll search for Eastern Car Works kits. I'm using squadron putty to fill the cracks. It will work out okay; just seems a hassle with their instructions. OTOH, why would following Eastern Car Works instructions help build an E&B Valley kit? Slightly off topic: Is E&B Valley still making these cars? I'm surprised at how many H0 manufacturers there are. I never heard of a lot of these companies.
Except...real Mantua cars were neat kits. I have several/many. Sheet aluminium sides for the coloured sides to glue to, brass roof and floor....cast ends.... Now, the old TYCO line relabelled later as Mantua, granted. Dave
No E&B Valley went out of business in the 1980's they first changed their name to Robbins Rails and then finally sold most of their dies to Eastern Car Works who has not made anything in about 8 years. The dies are supposedly in a container somewhere in PA or NJ. E&B Valley had you build the sides and ends first and then insert the slope sheets, I and a couple of other modelers found that glueing the sides to the slope/hopper first then attaching underframe, ends, and roof made for a better constructed car. The Airslides were even worse as the sides were almost always warped and the construction had to take that into account. Also ECW made three different styles, the original E&B, one with equidistant hatches that can be used to build a PRR H33 and a round hatch version that resembled the ACF CH29. They also gave you inserts so you could have the large opening, a smaller opening and no opening. A couple of other kit manufacturers are Q-Connection who makes the Whale Belly Covered Hopper, Abacus Models who has an ambitious line of kits to build, Moloco who has just come out with a 50' GATC RBL, and Spring Mills Hobbies who so far have done the Canstock Car, B&O Wagontop caboose and will be coming out with a PD3000 Covered Hopper. Rick J
Flash, here are a few of my E&B/ECW kits in various forms: Round hatch version with enclosed sides, Herald King Decal. Square hatch version with enclosed sides, Herald King Decal. Square hatch version with fully open sides, Herald King Decal. Square hatch version with the small opening, Microscale Decal. Rick J
Dave, I cast a vote for Bachmann just to make you happy :cute: Hard to vote without knowing the criteria. Best running? Most prototypical? Most detail for the dollars? Hopefully that won't skew the results too bad. Personally I don't look for "the best" rolling stock, but rather the most interesting (to me). As always, one man's junk is another's gold!
Dave, I have never seen one of those old Mantua kits, they would have been fun to build. And I forgot another junk manufacturer to leave off the list - Botchmann!!!! Rick J
There ya go...just don't leave the "c" out of Bothman, eh? Mantuas....the bent edge sides fit under the ends, the floor wrapped it, the roof overlapped the sides....hard to recall, but the reefer hatches or boxcar roof steps had bosses that fit through, cupped washers and screws.... Hey, you could buy the car, build it, then go down and select the sides to put on. Paint the car first, no masking.... I picked one up once that I needed to restore.....had it all apart and cleaned before it hit me. Boxcar sides with reefer hatches. Oh, well. Fixed that! Old Varney...I have cardstock cars....embossed rivet detail...and the metal ones....sides and ends were two pieces shaped like an "L". I restored 13 high cars a couple of years ago.....old Mantua metal tank cars are neat..... I figure if they've lasted 50-60 years, they'll last forever. Nobody ever removed the flash on the trucks when they built them up...so, pull all the springs, file the flash all off, paint and re-assemble, cleaning wheels and journals. The neat part is finding stuff you didn't know about...like the Varney Super Mikado (all sprung) with Central Valley 6-wheel sprung trucks. Makes it sprung beam to beam. Someday you need to find an old Athearn wood and metal high car kit, just to do it. Fun, and definitely no "rattle the box". Took me a week the last one I did, about 3 months ago. Build the wood framework, recess the metal straps, and start pinning it together. Mine had factory (NYC Pacemaker) sides, but roof and ends were unpainted...so had to match it. Didn't do too bad. Dave
No need to get mean about it. I left Electrotren, Hornby, and märklin out too, and the limit is 25, so these are the hand full I picked (since I own stock from most of them anyways) out of the 100 or so current and former companies. Plus for us in the U.S., 'most' of these are the biggest ones. You'd be surprised how many people like IHC and Mantua cars. I personally can't stand anything by IHC. Everything by them seems like it was boxed and shipped when it was 'almost' complete. As for Bachmann, I have a few of their Europe cars and a Europe loco. No idea why, but those items are better then the junk they try to peddle in the States. Model Power isn't all bad, with some minor corrections they can be pretty good. Doesn't help that SP never owned those cars, but they stay on the tracks better then IHCs out of the box. Also, does anyone know if Atlas will continue making the Branchline kits? I'd like a few more SP&S passenger cars. I already have 3 (with 2 completed). Not a huge fan of the DIY truck assembly, but everything else was relatively decent.
The ones that drive me crazy are the snap-in trucks, and the cast wheelsets with a parting line crossing the tread and flange at two places. Piece them together, drill out the frame, glue in a plastic rod, when dry, drill and tap 2-56, re-install trucks with a brass sleeve cut to fit for one truck snug, one loose, in a box, for the nephew to pick up. Dave
We have a club member here who loves doing this. He likes the old billboard reefers in the Mantua cars so he does this all the time. He does replace the trucks and couplers. Not bad looking cars.
I'm going to have to agree with dti here. But just keep in mind some of Front Range, McKean are pretty rare and Rail Yard Models recently went out of business and the modesl are very hard to find once people found out and snatched up whatever could be found. I also agree that IHC, Mantua and Model Power are at the very low end, some would consider them junk yes. I know there are a few old timers who may take offense at that, but when you put the old in with the new, a lot of the old is very crude now and not so good. This poll is, after all, there to say what is best, so some of the old stuff drops off the list.
